El Zorro: Munich 7: The Hauptbahnhof (慕尼黑. 7: 中央車站))

I had long heard about Heidelberg University in my studies. I know that it is the oldest university in Germany (established in 1386!) and the 5th oldest in Central Europe and that it's situated in a very picturesque part of Germany So, maybe I could kill two birds with one stone and pay it a visit. But first, I got to go to the train station.

This is the Hauptbhnhof (Main Station), Munich's central railway station, one of the three in the city for long distance train (the other two being München-Pasing and München Ost. ) and handles some 450,000 passengers a day. It's a station first built in 1839 and first opened at the current site in 1849 and has since been rebuilt a number of times, the last being in 1987 and now has 32 platforms. It is also served by the underground S-Bahn ( for both urban and suburbs) with 2 platforms and U-Bahn (for the urban districts) stations with 6 platforms. And a second S-bahn station has been planned to be in operation in 2020.

The station from another angle

Its metal and glass canopy

The information booth at the station.

There are luggage lockers for rent at the station

The sign for the lockers

Tickets machines with instructions in German, French, Italian, Spanish and English but no Chinese or Japanese

There are also cigarettes vending machines although smoking is prohibited on trains and inside the railway station.

Security at the station.

A station floor manager answering queries.

A Taiwanese tour group at the station

One of the exits.

A fast food booth outside one of its entrances: as smoking is prohibited inside the station, smokers are forced to step out for the puff they are dying to have.

The train which would take me to Heidelberg: an "I-train".

A souvenir booth at the station

This is where I had my breakfast after booking the tickets

A German bun with ham and a cup of coffee

The station has half a dozen fast food stalls like this.

selling all kinds of sandwiches

or pizzas and quiches

from stalls like this

or chain bread and pastry stalls like this: the place of honor being given to pretzel, placed on the top shelf. In Germany, bread is more than just a food; it's a culture. Believe it or not, the Germans have more than 300 types of bread and more than 1,200 varieties of rolls and mini-breads called "bröchen" and "kleingebäck eaten with hard-bioled eggs, different kinds of cheese, sausages or salads which are normally eaten in the morning. But they eat bread not only for breakfast but also as part of their normally light dinner because they believe in a heavy lunch. There are special breads for festivals and other celebrations. At festivals, the most common bread is 'pretzel", the manner of preparation of which was, I later learned, the result of an accident. According to the standard story, a baker who intended to make sweet bread accidentally mistook the sodium hydroxide normally used for washing the baking pans, for sugar powders and as a result , when baked, the inside of the bread turned out to be much softer than its stiff exterior!